Starbucks has announced that their free Wi-Fi connectivity will be making its way across the pond to our UK coffee shops.
Until now, Wi-Fi access in Starbucks coffee shops was on a paid basis, whereby you’d sign up for a Starbucks Card and be provided with a login for their Wi-Fi networks.
The company announced that free Wi-Fi would be rolling out across their UK stores via a Tweet today.
All you’ll need to do now when in a Starbucks is search for Wi-Fi networks on your laptop, smartphone or tablet, choose the in-store network and hit connect – voila! Free wireless.
In the U.S. Starbucks has been offering free access to otherwise paid-for services along with their free Wi-Fi, such as iTunes, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. It’s currently unclear as to whether the company will be adding any such deals to their free Wi-Fi in UK stores.
The initial rollout of free wireless will cover over 650 stores nationwide, says Starbucks. More should be added over time, but you should be able to find a shop with free Wi-Fi pretty easily right now.
All networks will be unsecured, meaning you can hop on right away. Be warned, this can mean that dastardly types may be able to gain access to your shared browsing cookies and potentially pinch login details. You can easily avoid this and enjoy your free wireless carefree by using secure HTTPS connections to websites. In most web browsers there will be a setting to enable this – for instance in Google Chrome, go into Options and then ‘Under the Bonnet’.
We’re always for more free Wi-Fi out and about – there’s always a catch in some way!
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.